From the year 2011

I am always hearing conservative commentators talk about how government should be run like a business. This is not a perfect analogy, but suppose we were to take it for granted for a moment. Are conservative political policies good business practices? Today I was listening to the Sucky Fill-In Host (henceforth “SFIH”) for the Rush […]

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I know your secret. I’m talking to you, the guy at the gay bar with the beer in his hand, wearing the baseball cap and worn baggy jeans. You would never wear designer clothes, and you mock people who do. You make sure that you mention to everyone that you can that you dress to […]

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“I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in [demons] (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to the belief in [God]. The ‘Life Force’, the worship of […]

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Dear K***, I just wanted to write you a quick note this weekend about how you should be thinking about eating during the holidays. This is important, because most people’s intuitions get this completely wrong and do exactly the worst thing they could possibly do for themselves. If you want to keep muscle and not […]

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The popularity of the word “freedom” is in direct proportion to its adaptability. We can slide from talking about a “free market” to “free speech” to “free will” without taking a breath, and we can happily switch between talking about our “freedom” to choose which brand of toothpaste to buy and our “freedom” to practice […]

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Finally completed! For the last month (on and off) I’ve been working on drawing an almost life-sized self-portrait using charcoal on a huge roll of hot press watercolor paper that my mom sent to me. Mainly, this was a kind of technical assignment for me. How do I draw a self-portrait that is almost life-sized? […]

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I just finished writing a new short story, Mn̥téys wall. It’s up on DeviantArt if you would like to read it. My original concept with this piece was to imagine life 10,000 years ago, in the region of Çatalhöyük. Over a period of about 1000 years (a short time, when looking at that part of history) […]

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What is your ideal vision of how to run a country, America? Is it to have an efficient government, that is run like a business? Or is it to have a democracy? You have to pick one, because it cannot be both. There is a reason that successful companies have a CEO, or a board […]

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Dear K***, I want to take a moment to respond to the comment in your last letter, that you haven’t “gained or lost any weight yet.” You are on Week 3 of this workout and diet plan right now. Your body is adjusting to learning new exercises, and your body is just starting to get […]

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This is a difficult article for me to write, because I am not a radical. It is simply not my personality. I’m the kind of guy who argues by saying, “I totally see your point, but have you considered this…?” I respond to nastiness with politeness, I flirt with people who think that I’m aloof, […]

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Buck Field is a philosopher, a scientist, and an MBA: an unusual intersection of fields of expertise. Synthesizing concepts from philosophy, physics, and project management, he has envisioned a way to revolutionize our basic understanding of the universe, and perhaps carve a path to one of the “holy grails” of modern physics along the way: […]

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Earlier in the month, I tweeted to a friend: gregstevens Greg Stevens @trevorarmel I’ve literally had a “web presence” since the year Justin Bieber was born. Scary stuff. Literally moments later a total stranger tweeted me a link with some kind of scandalous news story about Justin Bieber. (It has since been removed.) And I […]

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This infuriates me. Dear Stereotypical Gay People Speculating On The Internet: It’s one thing to speculate about people who are homophobic or hateful. But when someone is so open, so positive toward the gay community, can’t we be respectful enough to just take his identity at face value. If he says he’s straight, let’s take […]

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I’ve ranted about lying with statistics and statistics abuse before. This time, though, it overlaps with another of my favorite topics: taxes. For a very long time now, the silk-voiced and soothing Mark Levin has pushed the idea that our tax system is horribly skewed and unfair against rich people. His evidence for this is […]

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People like to claim that “moderate” means “open-minded.” In my experience, it just as often means “uninformed about politics” or “ignorant about the differences between the parties.” As it turns out, the data collected by the online survey site yourmorals.org agrees: (graph from an article at polipsych.com)